INTERNATIONAL REPORT

INTERNATIONAL REPORT; BRAZILIAN LOAN REQUEST IS EXPECTED

By ALAN RIDING, Special to the New York Times

Published: January 12, 1987

RIO DE JANEIRO, Jan. 11—
Following a slump in its trade surplus and foreign exchange reserves, Brazil is now planning to seek between $2 billion and $3 billion in ''new money'' from its creditors, as part of upcoming negotiations to restructure foreign debt, according to officials in Brasilia.

They said the president of the Central Bank, Fernao Bracher, would explore that possibility with representatives of leading banks at meetings in New York on Thursday and Friday.

As recently as last July, Brazil insisted that it would need no fresh credits in 1987 to cover its interest payments. But, since then, it has lost at least $5 billion in reserves, while its monthly trade surplus has tumbled from a three-year average of more than $1 billion to barely more than $100 million in December. Move Seen as Unavoidable

''No one wants to hear talk of new money at the moment,'' one foreign banking source said, ''but if you look at Brazil's figures, I don't see how it can be avoided. But people are going to want to be convinced that Brazil knows what it's doing first.''

Formal talks with a 14-bank advisory committee that represents about 600 commercial creditors are expected only after Brazil has made progress in separate negotiations with the so-called Paris Club of government creditors. Those talks are scheduled to begin in Paris on Jan. 19.

''We're not on the eve of another 1983,'' an official here said, referring to the last time Brazil was forced to suspend foreign debt payments. ''We're going to need new money to balance our books for 1986, but exports are beginning to bounce back, and our reserves are not dangerously low.''

The upcoming negotiations on the $110 billion foreign debt, the largest in the developing world, are increasingly being overshadowed here by the deterioration of the domestic economic situation marked by a resurgence of high inflation. Growth of Black Market

Last February, in an effort to smother an inflation that was running at an annual rate of 500 percent, the Government imposed a price freeze that, while successful in spawning a consumer boom and double-digit economic growth for 1986, had the effect of disrupting industrial production and forcing many goods onto the black market.

Since the Government began ''melting'' the freeze in late November, however, inflation has jumped to rates close to those prevailing before the so-called Cruzado Plan was decreed 11 months ago. Reflecting expectations of accelerated price rises, annualized interest rates for 60-day certificates of deposit increased from 220 percent last Monday to 370 percent on Friday.

The country's finance minister, Dilson Funaro, argued last week that the inflationary surge should last only 45 to 60 days while ''adjustments'' are made to restore the structure of relative prices throughout the economy. But, facing growing criticism from both private-sector organizations and the labor movement, there have been rumors that he may soon be replaced.

In a document sent to President Jose Sarney last week, Sao Paulo's powerful business confederation said the ''untenable mystique'' of the price freeze had ''strangled'' industry and discouraged investment.

And while the Government embarks on negotiations aimed at achieving an anti-inflationary ''social pact'' with business and labor, it is facing strong resistance from union leaders to suggestions that inflation-linked wage increases be eliminated.

Minimum wages were raised 20 percent last week to compensate for accumulated inflation since last February. But officials fear that further automatic wage increases could feed inflation.

If inflationary pressures are not curbed, officials have raised the possibility of postponing a multiyear debt-rescheduling agreement.